Notes

204] THE KINGIS QUAIR (i.e. quire, book) is a poem in 1379 lines in seven-line stanzas and is extant in one MS., Arch. Selden B 24, at the Bodleian, written about 1490. The poem is attributed in the MS. to James I of Scotland, and was first printed in 1783 in William Tytter's The Poetical Remains of James the First, King of Scotland. The ascription to James I has been questioned, but is still generally accepted. James I, son of Robert III, King of Scotland, was captured by the English while sailing for France in 1406, in his twelfth year, and shortly before his father's death. He was detained in England in honourable captivity for eighteen years. In 1424 he married Lady Joan Beaufort, granddaughter of John of Gaunt, and returned to Scotland. After an energetic reign he was murdered at Perth in 1437. He is said by the Scottish chronicler, John Major (d. 1521), to have written a poem concerning his queen before they were married. In The Kingis Quair the poet, looking back on his chequered fortunes, tells how, while on a voyage in his tenth year, he was seized by his enemies and kept prisoner for eighteen years. While imprisoned in a tower he saw a lady walking in a garden and fell in love with her. After her departure he had a vision, in which he was transported through the heavens to the palace of Venus, who promised to aid him. He then visited the palace of Minerva to learn wisdom and prudence in his love, and then, the domain of Fortune, who placed him on her wheel and promised him success. When he woke, a dove brought him a message of comfort and soon afterward he was united to his lady. The language of the poem is mainly of the Early Scots dialect but certain forms of the London English of the period of Chaucer occur quite frequently. It seems as if James's own dialect had been modified by his long residence in England and by his study and imitation of the works of Chaucer and Lydgate. Back to Line